The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for frying food and particularly, but not exclusively, to an automatic french-fries machine and wherein the frying basket containing the foodstuff is shaken during the frying cycle and again shaken at a position above the cooking pot to remove excess oil from the foodstuff and the basket before it is conveyed to a discharge position.
Various attempts have been made to develop an automatic or semi-automatic machine capable of frying foodstuff, such as french-fries. Known apparatus in the art have encountered several problems and particularly when cooking frozen or semi-frozen products such as french-fries. It has been found that the fries are not uniformly cooked or stick to one another during the frying cycle. Also, some of the known machines cannot dispense proper regular quantities of french-fries when the fries are stored within the machine. It is also found that the fries will also adhere to the cooking basket and therefore cannot be unloaded from within the machine and thereby requiring frequent service calls to render the machine properly operative. Further, these machines produce fries that have an oily taste. The machines consume large quantities of oil thereby requiring that the cooking pot be verified periodically and refilled with oil. Hot cooking oil can prove hazardous and could be harmful to the operator if the machine is not properly constructed with safety features. Another problem with such machines is that they are not well ventilated, they take a large amount of space and are difficult to service and clean.
An example of such prior art machine is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,325,766. That patent describes some of the disadvantages of the prior art and attempts to solve these problems by providing a machine wherein the frozen products, herein frozen french-fries are stored in a top part of the machine and are delivered to a basket. The french-fries are stored in an enclosure where freezing temperatures prevail. It is required with such machines to have a cold airflow maintained in the enclosure and circulated over an evaporator of a cooling device placed in the enclosure to dry the air and draw out the fries. Accordingly, the machine is bulky and expensive to fabricate and require extensive servicing. The fries are placed in a basket which is in the form of a pivoting spout. The cooking basket is lowered into a cooking pot as part of a rocking phase and then rocked back on its hinge to push a door and discharge the fries outside the unit. When the door is open a fan draws air through the door and through the basket. Such a device does not overcome many of the above-mentioned disadvantages of the prior art and create other disadvantages.
It is a feature of the present invention to provide an apparatus and a method for frying food which substantially overcomes the above-mentioned disadvantages of the prior art.
Another feature of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and a method for frying food and wherein the frying basket with the foodstuff to be fried is shaken during the frying process when the basket is inserted into the cooking oil to provide fries which are evenly cooked.
Another feature of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and a method for frying food wherein the frying basket with the foodstuff to be fried is arrested above the cooking pot after the frying cycle and shaken whereby to remove excess oil from the foodstuff and the frying basket and to cause excess oil to drip back into the cooking pot prior to displacing the frying basket to a discharge position.
Another feature of the resent invention is to provide an apparatus and a method for frying food which is easy to service, safe to operate, and which is substantially fully automatic.
According to the above features, from a broad aspect, the present invention provides an apparatus for frying food. The apparatus comprises a housing having a food receiving opening and a discharge port. A food frying pot is provided in the housing with a heating element placed therein to heat frying oil. A perforated frying basket is hingedly secured to a conveying means. A transfer chute is associated with the perforated frying basket. Control means is provided to operate the conveying means to displace the frying basket to a food receiving position, a food frying position, and a food discharge position. The transfer chute directs foodstuff into and out of the frying basket. Basket shaking means is provided to shake the frying basket when disposed at a predetermined location to provide a high quality fried foodstuff. Ventilation means is associated with the housing.
According to a still further broad aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of frying foodstuff and which comprises providing a machine having a housing in which is disposed a food frying pot. The housing has a food receiving opening and a discharge port. A frying basket and a transfer chute are hingedly secured to a conveying means within the machine. The method consists in inserting foodstuff to be fried in the food receiving opening and automatically transferring the foodstuff to be fried to the frying basket by means of the transfer chute. The conveying means conveys the frying basket into the food frying pot for frying the foodstuff for a predetermined period of time. The cooking basket is shaken at one or more predetermined locations. The frying basket is conveyed with the fried foodstuff therein to a food discharge position. The transfer chute receives the fried foodstuff at the discharge position and directs it to a food container disposed at the discharge port.